Written by Steven Allison
Earlier this month, Mitch Bain gave me an hour from his busy schedule to chat about his horror film podcast, Strong Language and Violent Scenes.
At a small greasy spoon just a stone’s throw from London’s trendy Angel area, he plonked himself down opposite me.
“I’ll have a Trenta, no foam, five-shot half-caf, no foam pumpkin spice latte with no foam at 210 degrees.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s what he asked for when the surly waitress approached us. That would have been amazing, but sadly I was merely reading from his t-shirt.
We sent the waitress off with our actual order—two mugs of builder’s tea and two bacon rolls (make that 4, we were starving)—and he explained the quote emblazoned across the front of his t-shirt to me.
Apparently one of the best from Chanel Oberlin (Emma Roberts) of Scream Queens fame, Mitch informed me that the line is just one thing that makes the show worth a watch. Now halfway through the first season, I can confirm that his judgement is pretty spot on.
As we chinwagged about the podcast and all things horror, it became clear that this wasn’t the only thing that was spot on about this lovely guy. So, too, was his killer sense of humour. To the annoyance of other patrons, we laughed a lot—and loudly. I also came away with an expansive must-watch list and even managed to wrangle myself an invite to November’s Soho Horror Film Festival. Score!
So, without further ado, let’s begin your journey into the mind of my new favourite horror aficionado.
Can you tell us a bit about what makes Mitch tick?
In short, an obsessive interest in horror films and music.
Gun to head, what are your top 3 horror movies of all time and why?
- John Carpenter’s Halloween is up there. I watched it after I’d seen a bunch of stuff that it had obviously influenced, and it was a total eye-opener to watch films that I thought were fresh before seeing something from 30 years earlier that had done it all before.
- It Follows, which is the best example of a wave of horror films, like The VVitch, The Babadook, and Hereditary, which are genuinely scary but have a cool Indie, art-house sensibility.
- Lucky McKee’s May. I read an article on it when I was trying to find films to watch, liked the sound of it, watched it, and it’s definitely near the top of the pile.
When and how did your love or horror develop?
There’s a running joke on the podcast that I haven’t seen enough to have any business hosting it. Basically, that’s because I came to them quite late. I was 23 when Paranormal Activity came out in 2007, which I loved. After seeing that, I started catching up on films from the previous few years before working my way backwards. I was basically starting from zero, whereas most of the genre fans I know have been watching horror films since childhood.
How is it that you know all these other horror fans?
I go to UK horror festivals every year—Frightfest and Celluloid Screams. While it might seem like everyone spends days sitting in the dark before everyone goes their separate ways, festivals are really social. Everyone hangs out between films and talks about them. I’ve made some good friends and connections through these festivals.
What’s the worst horror film that you’ve ever seen?
I don’t really like openly trashing films. However, a lot of titles that make it to big cinemas are bog standard—all the usual jump scares and no real interest in freaking you out or getting under your skin. And that’s boring. I guess some examples are Annabelle, The Pyramid, and The Devil Inside. I’m quite willing to give most things a go, but that kind of stuff tries my patience.
Where did the idea for Strong Language and Violent Scenes come from?
I’d get together with Andy Stewart—the show’s cohost—to watch mostly older films that I hadn’t seen. In January, we watched Slugs, which isn’t objectively the best film, but we had a laugh watching it and talking about it. It made us decide to do a podcast of us discussing films like that. We decided to go for a ‘one man’s trash is another’s treasure’ sort of thing. We’d invite a guest who would pick either something underrated or that got a terrible critical reception, but they love anyhow. Andy mostly shaped this format, but I’d had the title in mind for a podcast of some description for a while and it seemed like a good fit.
Can you tell us a bit more about Andy Stewart?
He’s a horror film-maker and very good at what he does. He’s directed a few shorts, including Remnant, Dysmorphia, Ink, and Split, which are all great. He’s also heavily involved in other people’s projects. He recently produced Mannequins, a short by David Malcolm, which is doing the festival circuit right now.
There’s a mini-episode every week on top of the main episode. What can listeners expect from that?
The “minisode” runs 4 days before the main episode and on that, we announce the film that will be discussed in the main episode. It’s grown into a show in its own right and has a few different features. One is Mitch’s Pitches, which is essentially designed to exploit my ignorance for other people’s entertainment. Andy finds a poster for an old horror film, photoshops it to remove the title and taglines, then sends it to me and posts it on our social media live. 9/10 times I’ve never heard of it. The idea is that I describe the poster as best I can and then pitch a title and synopsis.
What was your favourite Mitch’s Pitch?
One for Netherworld, which I reimagined as The Curse of Snakefest, and another for Hell Night, which I retitled A Visit to Aunt Death. These references might not work in isolation, but if you burrow into the episodes then you’ll understand more. It’ll also make more sense if you look at the posters for the films.
What kind of response have you had to the project overall?
We’ve been doing it for 6 months and the response has been great. The show has grown in a way that we didn’t expect. We’ve now got a small but very engaged and active listener base. What I’ve enjoyed most about the way people interact with the podcast is that, on social media, people not only talk to us but also engage in conversations with each other. So, we start the conversation and then sometimes just step back and allow a dialogue to unfold. I like the idea of having a little community around it and that’s something I hope grows as the show goes on.
You did a live show at Celluloid Screams last week. How did that go down?
We had Andre Gower, the star of The Monster Squad. He was there with Wolfman’s Got Nards – A Documentary on that film, but we talked about Starship Troopers. A fair number of people came and it went well, so we’ll likely work on developing the show as it is and then look at the possibility of doing some more live shows. It’s something that we’ve always liked the idea of doing, but we didn’t think we’d have the opportunity so soon.
Who was your favourite guest on the show and why?
I can honestly say that I’ve enjoyed them all. One that sticks out is Duncan McLeish, host of the podcast Under The Stairs, who picked Rawhead Rex. It was our longest, silliest, and most vulgar episode to date. It’s the only one that I’ve told my mum not to listen to. Another is Natasha Kermani, director of Imitation Girl, which everyone should watch. She chose Johnny Mnemonic. She had exactly the right sense of humour about it all, aware that the film was an absolute disaster, but keen to show her enthusiasm for it. It made for a nice balance.
What other horror-related projects have you got on the go just now?
The next few months will be taken up by writing music for two films. One is the director’s cut of a horror film, which is well underway. I’m just getting started with the other, which is a drama film made by Optimum Film Productions. Hopefully, I’ll be able to say a bit more about those projects soon. I also run a horror film review site called Shock Street Horror, which is on a bit of a hiatus right now. I’m looking to get that up and running again soon, though.
What sort of horror villains do you love?
I prefer villains that could exist in reality. Either that or abstract villains, like in It Follows. I like when they can get inside people’s heads. The villain in The Babadook is externalised as a very cool and iconic looking creature, but it’s really a metaphor for grief and inner struggle. That was a very smart idea. With a lot of villains, though, you just to put logic to one side. Take Michael Myers, for example, who becomes indomitable – you can only enjoy Halloween once you get on board with the idea that his capability to survive pushes the boundaries of possibility to their limits.
Do you have any podcast recommendations other than your own?
I love horror fiction podcasts – big fan of those. Of those, I’d recommend The NoSleep Podcast. It’s great, as is Creepy and Darkest Night. For chat about horror films, I really like Shock Waves and Bloody Good Horror.
You can find Mitch on Twitter and be sure to check out Strong Language and Violent Scenes on iTunes and on PodBean.
